


Happiness is Early Morning Bakery Runs

by youwouldneverfly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Human, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 16:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youwouldneverfly/pseuds/youwouldneverfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek would like to say he keeps going back to the bakery for the free goodies he always seems to get, but it wouldn't be the entire reason why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happiness is Early Morning Bakery Runs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [goldenspine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenspine/gifts).



> So this was a Galentine's Day gift for goldenspine, but it is late to be posted. Anyway, this was also beta'd by her. I needed to write something to get me out of my writing funk, since I am currently in the process of editing / rewriting a super depressing nano fic, so why not some [late valentines] fluff. 
> 
> Despite it being a gift for the occasion, it isn't especially valentines-y. I think there is only one mention of th eholiday.

The first time Derek goes to the bakery is because Laura tells him he has to. He’s staying with her for a couple weeks while he looks for a place of his own in town, and she says if he’s going to stay with her rent free, that he’s going to help out. He was under the impression she meant with cleaning or fixing things, but instead he is saddled with being woken up at six thirty in the morning, a piece of paper shoved under his nose and Laura standing over him, still in her pajamas. She tells him she is going back to bed, and when she wakes up she wants bagels from her favorite bakery. With that, she walks back out of the room, and Derek is left to assume that it is his job to make the bagel run.

It’s not that Derek minds waking up early, it’s just that he isn’t fond of the thought of being ordered to do things this early in the day, every day, until he gets into his own place.  Overall, he and Laura have a fine brother - sister friendship going on, but Derek isn’t quite sure there has ever been a time when Laura let him forget she’s the older one, and therefore the boss at the end of the day. He isn’t getting good vibes for how this cohabitation thing is going to go for him, he thinks as he gets up from bed. It feels like this  is just the beginning of his errand boy work.

Nevertheless, he gets cleaned up and dressed, and by seven he is out the door and in his car, heading towards the bakery Laura had pointed out to him the night before when they went to get dinner. It had been closed, much to Laura’s dismay, so they didn’t get to go in for what she said is the best red velvet cookie in the world. It amuses him, but doesn’t surprise him, that on the bottom of her list – written on an orange post it note – she has written that she wants a small box of the cookies.

The trip to the bakery only takes about ten minutes. When he arrives, he sees there aren’t any other cars parked out front on the street, and wonders if they’re even open. The bakery itself is tucked between two other storefronts, both of which don’t seem to be open yet. The bakery though has its lights on, and he can see a few people inside, so he figures Laura didn’t send him off to sit in his car and wait until someone showed up. Getting out and walking up to the shop, he digs in his pocket for the list and pulls open the bakery door, being hit with the warm scent of fresh baked bliss.

He’s greeted by a pretty dark haired girl, who smiles widely at him as she welcomes him to the bakery. He nods in return, casting glances over the glass display case and the racks behind the counter. Honestly, everything looks ridiculously good, and he’s suddenly less worried about being sent away every day to do Laura’s bidding. Although, he’s a little more concerned with the ratio of money he’ll be losing in comparison of pounds he will be gaining because of this place.

Even though everything in the case is labeled with what it is, as well as the racks behind the counter - which seem to be filled with breads and bagels, Derek looks up at the menu, which is written on a large chalkboard taking up a good chunk of the wall behind the cashier station. It is currently being written on by a boy standing on the top of a stepladder, his back turned to Derek.

“Hey Allison,” the boy on the ladder begins, looking down at the pretty cashier, “What are the specials today?”

The girl – Allison – beckons him down off the ladder, taking the chalk out of his hand, telling him, “Just let me write it. I actually know what needs to be written, and my handwriting is better anyway.”

The boy gives her a sarcastic ‘ha ha’, but steps away, admitting defeat and approaching the register. Apparently just noticing Derek, the boy – whose nametag reads ‘Stiles’ on closer inspection – takes pause for a minute before clearing his throat and asking “Can I help you?”

Trying to contain himself by not over-ordering, Derek goes back to the list Laura made, and rattles it off, adding on a banana walnut muffin for himself, and not forgetting her small box of cookies. Derek was expecting it to be a dozen cookies that she’d just end up binging on before making him buy more, but it is only four, packed on top of each other between pieces of parchment paper, inside a small cardboard box.

“I feel like I am going to be back tomorrow for more of those,” he says, watching as Stiles packs everything away in a paper bag.

“Oh,” he says, seeming like he is searching for how to finish the sentence. “Do you… Like sweets? Because, I mean, not to say I am scoping you out or something, but you do not look like you eat a lot of sweets. You look like you live off the meat of animals you hunt and kill yourself. And protein shakes. Not that that is bad. You’re just very fit... You know what? Nevermind.”

About halfway through what was being said to him, Derek breaks a little, first just grinning, but laughing by the end of the short ramble. Approaching the counter, having been standing back to watch the cases and racks as Stiles took out the things for his order, Derek leans against it a little and shakes his head before saying, “No, it’s fine, I get it. My sister likes them, although she doesn’t eat a lot of them. I’m buying them for her. I’m more of a savory-sweet instead of sugary sweet myself.”

Sliding the paper bag towards Derek before ringing him up, Stiles pauses before heading back over to the glass case, bending down, and putting something in a box, before popping back up and reapproaching.

“You should try this then,” he says, sticking it in Derek’s bag before finishing ringing him up. “It’s on me, so don’t worry if you hate it or something. It’s one of our giant cinnamon rolls; they’re delicious. So think of it as product testing to encourage repeat visitors.”

Deciding not to fight against free food, Derek hands over some cash, dumping the change he receives a minute later in the tip jar. He doesn’t miss the questioning glances Stiles is receiving from Allison, who’s still up on the ladder and finishing up rewriting what Stiles had put up there before. Not really caring what the reasoning behind them is, Derek grabs the handles of the bag, thanking them both, and makes his way out, heading back to Laura’s apartment. When he arrives, she is sitting on the couch waiting for him, bedhead fully in tact, and cup of coffee in hand. Her tired appearance is apparently an act however, because as soon as he is in the door, she shoots up, snatches the bag from him, and darts to the kitchen with it.

Following behind, Derek gets his own coffee, taking his muffin out of the bag before his sister can get to it and claim it as her own. Laura busies herself slicing a bagel and sticking it in the toaster before coming back to discover the box with the cinnamon roll.

“What’s this one?” she asks, opening the box, a rather pleasent scent coming from it.

“Cinnamon roll,” Derek says, making his way over and taking it directly from the box instead of trying to fight for possession of the whole parcel. Unfortunately the weight of the pasty wins over, and it drops back into the box, leaving him with nothing but a small chunk of it in his hand.

Laura hops up to sit on the kitchen counter, smirking at Derek as she rips her own piece off and says, “Never try to pull one over on me baby brother, it will not work out in your favor.”

“You say that like you planned for it to fall apart.”

“Maybe I did,” she says, popping her torn off piece of cinnamon roll into her mouth before asking, “Did you get this for you? You can have it back if you did. After I eat more of it of course, but still.”

“No, the guy who works there gave it to me for free.”

Laura pauses, considers this for a moment, and then goes back to eating the cinnamon roll saying, “You’re doing all my bakery shopping from now on. I’m milking this for as much as I can get.”

Derek makes a mental note to start going to bed earlier to make up for the fact he’s now Laura’s morning baked good delivery boy.

****

 

**************************************************************

 

Laura sends him back the next morning. She says if he comes home without any free merchandise, he doesn’t have to go back for her anymore, but for now she isn’t losing out on getting a bonus snack.

When Derek arrives at the shop, the same pair from the day before is standing behind the register, quietly bickering between themselves. Derek takes note it seems to be in the way that friends fight, where they both are doing it half heartedly, not seeming to mean any harm or ill intent. Allison seems to be grinning through the argument, whereas Stiles has a bit of a frown turning down the corners of his mouth. They both straighten up however when they spot Derek, Allison’s grin growing wider, Stiles’s frown tugging a little more at his mouth.

Regardless, he greets Derek in a friendly enough manner, and then turns to Allison, telling her she needs to go check on the bread in the back.

“Stiles, I just took it out ten minutes ago, it’s cooling.”

Giving her a pointed look, Stiles says, “The…. Other bread. Just go. I got this.”

The two of them share a look and Allison walks away, laughing a little. Derek isn’t even going to pretend to know what the two of them are silently communicating about, and instead turns back to Stiles, new list in hand.

“So you were right,” Derek tells him, offering a small smile, “The cinnamon rolls were wonderful, and my sister says I need to buy more.”

Stiles laughs, and if Derek isn’t mistaken, there’s a little bit of a blush hinting at his cheeks when he says, “So I was right, product testing would result in improved sales.”

“Apparently so.”

Stiles walks over and opens the case where the cinnamon rolls are, asking Derek how many he’d like, as well as if there is anything else he came in for. Derek reads off today’s list to him, now with his own additions as well as ones from Laura. Once everything is bagged up and paid for, Derek smiles and says goodbye, going back out to his car and taking note that there wasn’t any mention of any free additions today. A part of him is a little bummed, but a bigger part is relieved that he now has reason to sleep in some mornings.

It’s not until he gets back to Laura’s, and she is going through the bag, that she pulls out an unfamiliar container and asks what it is.

“I have no clue,” Derek says, peering over her shoulder at what she is holding.

Laura opens the container, finds a fork, and takes a bite, before turning back to Derek and saying, “It is bread pudding. You didn’t order this?”

Derek shakes his head, and a devious grin spreads across his sister’s face as she says, “Oh that’s it, you’re going back every day from now on.”

****

 

**************************************************************

 

She keeps her threat too. Every morning, Laura wakes him up, mysteriously needing something from the bakery. Muffins, bagels, a loaf of bread, cookies. One morning she sent him, claiming that she needed a cake, which sent him back to the bakery twice, once to order it, and once to pick it up when it was ready.

The thing is, he doesn’t get free stuff every day. Laura picks up the pattern, but Derek denies it, even though it is there. The days he goes in and Stiles and Allison are working, if Stiles takes the order, there’s always something slipped into the bag. Some days though, those two aren’t working, and instead it is a pretty redheaded girl, and a quiet, curly haired guy. The two of them are nice, and just as friendly as the first two, but on those days there is nothing mysteriously showing up in his bag that he didn’t ask for, no suggestions of something he should try and then an offer for it being on the house. Not that he is expecting it. It’s just a part of Laura’s pattern, which she is trying to convince Derek is a thing. She thinks the guy who gives him free stuff is either really sure Derek is going to like stuff and buy more of it, or that he is warm for Derek’s form.

Laura thinks it is the latter, and she has no problem pimping out her brother for a free salted caramel cupcake (which Derek forced her to share with him, and he had to admit it was amazing).

This morning when he goes in, it is the other pairing working. Isaac and Lydia from what he can read on their nametags. They don’t immediately notice him, and there are a couple other customers ahead of him, so he overhears a bit of the conversation the two of them are having before they get to him in line.

“Listen Isaac,” The redhead says, leaning against the register as she rings up each item he takes out of the case, “Stiles liked me for years. It was like having a puppy on my heels; except for I was pretty good at ignoring it. He likes whoever this dude is.”

“I don’t know,” Isaac tells her, straightening up and placing the customer’s bag on the counter, as he moves on to greet the next one. He quickly moves to grab their order, before turning back to Lydia and saying, “I mean, I’ve comped stuff to be nice before, and it does help with sales sometimes.”

“Not when you do it everyday,” she tells him, raising her eyebrows at him. “He likes him. Whoever he is. Although, I don’t know how he thinks fattening a person up with baked good is going to put him in their good graces. If anything this guy is gonna start resenting him.”

The conversation fizzles out after that, but Derek can’t help but repeat it once he gets back to Laura’s. The self-satisfied smile he gets in return is a silent ‘I told you so’ that he didn’t want to get.

The thing is though, even with his newfound knowledge that maybe this Stiles guy likes him, he isn’t sure how to feel about it. He’s not complaining about the perks, he likes those well enough, but he can’t say he’s going to toss the guy a bone for some free baked goods. And he can’t say he knows Stiles well enough to have any concrete feelings on him.

Luckily for him, he doesn’t have to think about any of it. He ends up finding a place of his own, and the next week is spent moving all his stuff out of the storage unit he had it in, and into his new apartment. It also means his parents coming down to see him and Laura, and the four of them have a bit of a house warming.

Laura shows up to the housewarming dinner at his place with a box of toasted coconut and banana cream cupcakes. Derek raises an eyebrow at her as he lets her in, and takes the box from her.

“Did you have to pay for these?” he asks, setting them down on the kitchen counter.

“Sadly, yes. No one at the bakery is in love with me.”

Unfortunately, their mom overhears this, and Derek has to spend the rest of dinner explaining to her that no one is in love with him, Laura is simply over enthusiastic. Laura then argues that point by telling their parents all about Derek wooing the boy who works at the bakery all for some free cupcakes.  By the end of the night when their parents are leaving, they are both on Team Laura, where they playfully torment him while wishing him luck with his pursuits.

****

 

**************************************************************

 

He doesn’t make it back to the bakery for another two weeks. In between moving in, starting at his new job, and adjusting to all the new things going on in his life, he didn’t have time. Besides that, he thought maybe not stopping in for a while would make Laura cut out the teasing him about bakery boy having a crush on him.

As the second week is wrapping up though, he gets a call from his sister as he is just walking into his apartment. Dropping his stuff down on the couch, he answers the phone with a quick greeting.

“I think you need to eat some muffins,” she says by way of her own greeting.

“Laura –“

“Yeah,” she continues, talking over him, “In fact, I think you need a whole bunch of muffins. Maybe some fresh baked bread. A couple of bagels. Who doesn't like bagels?”

“Well, I’m not entirely crazy about them –“

“Shut up Derek. Go back to the bakery, I was in there on my lunch break and that poor kid looks like someone stole his dog. He’s probably gives you the entire display case for free at this point. Just go in, say hi, get a cupcake. It won’t kill you. Besides, I bet you haven’t even gone grocery shopping yet, you could use buying and eating something that isn’t off a takeout menu.”

He ends up hanging up on her, after a short and quick goodbye, and tosses his phone with the rest of his things on the couch. He has better things to do that be harassed by Laura, his current plan being to go for a run. It’s just that, on the way back home, he happens to make his way past the street the bakery is on. So why not walk down there? Besides that, he doesn’t even think Stiles works at night, so it’s not even a guarantee he’ll run into the guy.

As he approaches, he realizes the bakery is busier now than it has been any other time he comes in in the mornings. Making his way around to the back of the line, he looks over the heads of a few people to see the familiar red hair of Lydia, smiling charmingly at whomever is at the cashregister as she rings them up. Derek realizes the nagging feeling he gets when he sees her means he was actually kind of wanting to see Stiles, and instead he isn’t even working right now.

Except then Derek notices someone come out of the doorway that he assumes leads to the kitchen, and instead of Isaac coming out, it is Stiles with a tray that he slides into the display case before straightening up. As he does, Derek moves up in line, and Stiles looks up, catching his eye.

Derek grins and gives a little half wave, which causes the boy behind the counter to look surprised, before grinning and half heartedly going back to work. When it becomes his turn in line, Stiles bumps Lydia out of the way, to which she complains, asking what he is doing.

“Nothing, just go… Count the cupcakes,” he tells her, waving her away without looking at her, his attention on Derek as he says hi.

“I don’t need to count – Oh. _Oh_.” She seems to have noticed Stiles’s attention caught elsewhere, and tells him, “Fine, but just so you know, he already knows.”

Both boys attention turn to Lydia as she shrugs her shoulders and walks away, leaving them alone, the previously crowded bakery now losing the rush it had had.

Clearing his throat a little, Stiles turns back to Derek and asks, “When she says… _You know_ , what… Is she referring to…”

“To the fact you were giving me free food because you think I’m attractive?”

Stiles blanches a little before nodding slowly.

“You know you could have talked to me instead of showering me in free baked goods that my sister never let me eat.”

“Oh god,” stiles says, burying his face in his hands, “Please don’t tell me she threw them away or something. I’ve been taking them out of my paycheck because I felt bad just giving away free stuff because I thought you were good looking, and if it’s just been for waste-“

“No, no,” Derek says, cutting him off with a laugh, “She kept eating them. I never got to eat one of them myself. I think I got one bite of that cinnamon roll, but nothing else. I finally moved out of her place, so I figured I’d come try all the stuff I’ve been missing out on.”

There’s a moment of silence between them before Derek realizes something.

“You were buying me all that stuff for two weeks?”

“Yes,” Stiles tells him, looking almost embarrassed. “I probably should have, you know, talked to you, but…”

“Do you want to go out for dinner sometime?”

He asks it suddenly, without much thought behind it; but once it is out there it’s done, and he doesn’t really feel the want or need to take it back. Similarly, that is how Stiles responds.

“Yes.”

Derek takes a napkin from one of the dispensers on the counter, and reaches over to grab a pen he sees sitting next to the register. He quickly jots down his phone number, handing the pen and napkin over to Stiles and saying, “Give me a call sometime. Also, can I get just one of whatever you recommend today?”

Looking down at the napkin before tucking it quickly into his pocket, Stiles asks, “Judging me on my good taste before you decide to make a commitment?”

Derek just replies with a shrug, and Stiles hurries over to the case, puts something in a continer, then slips it into a small bag. He comes back to where Derek is standing at the register and slides the bag over to him.

“That one’s on me, but it’s the last one.”

Derek takes the bag as he says, “I’m not taking your word for that, but okay.”

He makes his goodbyes, reminding Stiles to call him, and heads back outside, walking back towards the direction of his apartment. It’s not until he is down the street, out of sight of the bakery, that he decides to look into the bag to see what is his treat for the day.

Reaching inside, he pulls out the little plastic box, and laughs. Inside is a single red velvet cupcake, with what appears to be a leftover candy heart from the recent valentine’s celebrations poked onto the top of the frosting. Derek isn’t even doubting that his actions tonight were the wrong ones to take, because the words on the heart make the sentiment of the cupcake pretty clean: _‘Be Mine?’_


End file.
